Ok we have seen many threads on this subject about that we need population, Population, POPULATION. But for the sake of argument what if it doesn't grow anytime soon. Are we willing to just keep playing it the same way, having the same discussions on it. What can we ask for if the game population stays the way it is?

Topsight your a great pilot but I disagree with the two tier spread across all Tiers. The bottom tier of a two tier system will make people leave this game. They get destroyed before getting started and like many have said, it takes time to learn the basics of the game, their plane, etc. Now I will agree of the tier 2 spread in the upper tiers because we know they aren't as populated and most of the players are better and should be able to handle this spread.

You might not like this but for a solution towards MM to work with a stagnant population, something like locking the tiers during off peak hours will force people to populate the lower tiers and compress the the spread in numbers. A MM merge if you will. To be honest this idea is crap but its one way to make people play the same range of tiers.

@losttwo - a skill based mm should not separate players by skill into separate battles. As mentioned, it should do what it can to distribute the available players on the teams in the same battle.

@THEMARCO - always pitting flight v flight is not a good idea. There are many flights that are not nearly as skilled as others. A flight v flight balance may always put a lower-skill flight against a higher-skill flight and that would be zero fun for the lower skilled flight. This would give the good flights a consistent advantage.

Matches do not need to be 100% balanced by number of planes either. The current MM will try to balance a match with additional planes by TIER. This is silly. What's one extra tier 6 going to do for the team that is outnumbered in T8? And especially so if the opposing T8 is a good player?

Win rate + games played, IMO is the best metric to use for balancing teams. I have some very old posts on this I don't care to search for, but the MM could use each player's w/r - and number of games played as the weighting factor - and attempt to keep teams in the 53-47% range. This is called a "weighted average". For instance, my 56% w/r at 11k games would have a much larger affect on the team's average w/r than say a player with 70% or 46% w/r and 300 games. The weighted average w/r of each team would provide a rough estimate for the "probability" of winning that particular match up. I would even go so far as saying that the players' w/r and battle count in the plane they are currently flying would be even better than using their overall stats.

Flights should not even be part of the decision process. Each pilot's "skill" - however determined - should be considered individually whether they are in a flight or not.

The old 1.4 MM would attempt to balance teams by plane type (among other things). I do not think this is necessary if there is a skill-based MM involved.

A skill based MM would increase que times alot IMO, even with double the population. My suggestion would be, if we did this, and I do NOT advocate for it, to balance either via K/D or Damage Ratio at a +/- 10-20%. That still gives one team alot of advantage. Then you have to figure different plane types in. The only thing that really needs balancing is attack planes- by that I mean an equal number on both sides. All in all people will complain no matter what the MM. I know I personally do, even though I know I should not.

The (not so) amazing Chokai is back! And he's hit all his personal goals sans one! Seriously though, nice to be back, looks like he game is improving. I continue to try to recruit new people.

Not really. All it needs to do is distribute the available players as equitably as possible in a short enough timeframe. If I choose to fly my T2 premiums, I would expect to be on an outnumbered team (due to the number of battles and win rate I have), and would accept a 2 minute wait for the match.

Not really. All it needs to do is distribute the available players as equitably as possible in a short enough timeframe. If I choose to fly my T2 premiums, I would expect to be on an outnumbered team (due to the number of battles and win rate I have), and would accept a 2 minute wait for the match.

Hmmm I didn't even think about changing up the numbers for more experienced players. Still I feel like (and trust me I love my T2 Ar 68, Hawk III, A4N, AND XP-31) it would not be a fair match. If it was 3 v 4 with say you on one side, its likely the extra player would be a t1 or t2 that thinks his Ar 65s job is to shoot ground targets all day. Easy kills . Or, alternatively, they could have two aces, and two noobs on one side vs one "super ace" and two noobs, or a mixture. And no I a not using the word noob derogitively. I am in essence still one in many ways. All in all, MM can never be fair. We can guide it closest to be fair. And again, whilst i will gripe, it will all even out on getting on good and bad teams.

The (not so) amazing Chokai is back! And he's hit all his personal goals sans one! Seriously though, nice to be back, looks like he game is improving. I continue to try to recruit new people.

That is why a weighted average would be best. If all the other players in the match are new (i.e. low battle count), then a weighted average could produce a match that is HORRIBLY imbalanced in terms of team size (me versus 8 new players), but more equitably balanced in terms of skill. That is the question that losttwo raised: how to develop a skill-based mm that ACTUALLY WORKS regardless of population size.

Here again going back to 15 versus 15 matches still having a fast queue time. Then a re evaluation of

what might be needed suggestions for tweaking

True but.....

I read your posts and come away thinking 1 + X = ?

I certainly agree that this game would retain more "new" players if the MM was a skill based MM (ladder) type set up.... But as it has been said since the dawn of WoWp..... We need a bigger population..... Certainly this game would also retain more players with fast que times.... But that means again we need a bigger population.... AND absolutely this game would retain more players if EVERY match was 15 v 15 as YES these games are random but the bigger the battle the more balanced it is plane wise.... But duh.... We need a bigger population...... Also the Que Screen gaming is and has always been a source of intelligent gaming.... AKA UP TIERING.... The question is how can we solve all of this?.....

Bots maybe the only answer to all of this....

A skill based MM is possible where bad players get BOTS and decent players are equally matched against other decent players Great Players are pitted against other great players the gaps are filled with bots.... Now that doesn't mean that they are segregated.... A battle could contain bad, decent and great players.... Only that a equally bad, decent, great players is on the other team.... If a match isn't found... Bots....

This would allow for the Skill based MM with fast que times however the current 30sec flash game is crazy.... I can handle waiting a min or two... AS LONG AS WE ARE GETTING BIG MATCHES....

Also with this in mind the need for a Que screen would be less needed... We could use this screen time for training videos, tactics and so on based on the players skill level.... Just a idea there......

I know that BOTs is not a well received idea.... But I think its simply a shot in the arm.... Given time if it works BOTs can be phased out.... or back in as needed.....